Modelling Mushrooms

My recent article - Return to the Cabbage Patch, which was featured on Barking Irons Online has led to a number of comments about 'How I made the mushrooms', see photo below.

The starting point was a couple of lentils, some split peas and a selection of cocktail sticks. I cut the top of the cocktail sticks flush and then with a thick superglue, glued them onto the lentils or split peas. A am sure that you could also use larger pulses and even sculpt your own, but this is how I modelled mine.

The whole mushroom was painted brown and then highlighted a pale cream before the red tops were added. I have highlighted the red, but only slightly. The white spots were first painted light grey and then highlighted with pure white.

Once the paint was dry, I cut of the base of the cocktail stick and superglued them in place in clumps of three. I would add that in the construction of these six wild mushrooms, I actually made nine, two were lost in construction and painting and the head fell of the ninth when I was trying to cut the cocktail stick to size - the moral is 'always make more than you think you are going to need'.

Tony